Outbeat News In Depth

Happy Pride! This month we are celebrating the stories of two of our former guests who both published memoirs recently with the intent of sharing the stories of their lives as inspiration for others to come out and to live an authentic life. Cory Allen is a federal law enforcement officer who served previously in the United States Secret Service protecting the Obama family. He is now married and l...

This month we introduce you to the Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits community. Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (BAAITS) exists to restore and recover the role of Two-Spirit people within the American Indian/First Nations community by creating a forum for the spiritual, cultural and artistic expression of Two-Spirit people. BAAITS is a community-based volunteer organization offering cultur...

On May 18th, choirs from Napa Valley College and Napa High School will team up to perform “Considering Matthew Shepard.” This month, student members from both choruses talk about the oratorio and their experience learning and performing the music. We will also have all the details about how you can get tickets for the May 18th performance. “Considering Matthew Shepard is a Grammy-nominated three-p...

This month we talk with Jacob Stensberg, the almost-new artistic director and conductor of the San Francisco Gay Mens Chorus.  Jake is has been with the chorus now for almost two years and has already began sharing his vision for the next generation of this world-famous chorus. If you’ve been to the Green Center for the annual holiday show supporting Face to Face within the last two years, you’ve...

This month we continue our look at some of the issues at stake in this year’s election cycle and the upcoming initiative on the November ballot to remove the language in California’s Constitution put there by Proposition 8 back in 2008, defining marriage as being between one man and one woman.  The vote is not a “slam-dunk” and the LGBTQ+ community needs to be aware and involved in this issue. My...

We start the new year looking ahead to the November election and at some of the critical issues facing the most risk. We begin this month with HIV/AIDS. Jirair Ratevosian has spent his entire career working on the political side of the pandemic. Jirair was appointed by President Biden as the most senior Armenian American official at the State Department; served as legislative director to Congressw...

October marked 25 years since the murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. Since that time, Judy and Dennis Shepard have lead the Matthew Shepard Foundation. This month on Outbeat News In Depth we will share highlights from this year’s 25th commemoration which took place in Denver, Colorado. We’ll share the comments from honorees Chasten Buttigieg and Billy Porter.  We also talk with singer...

This month we introduce you to some of the new leadership at Positive Images, Sonoma County’s oldest LGBTQ+ youth organization. “Positive Images is a grassroots nonprofit organization serving Sonoma County since 1990. Our LGBTQIA+ Community Center hosts multiple weekly support groups, a youth leadership development program, mentorship opportunities, an LGBTQIA+ Library, resource and referral stati...

This October marks 25 years since the murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. It also marks a quarter century since the Techtonic Theater Project created “The Laramie Project” – a play that recounted for the world how the people of the town reacted to this horrific hate crime. In commemoration of these events, Napa Valley College is presenting a reading of The Laramie Project on Saturday, O...

This month Charley Beal and Cleve Jones return to our show to talk about the Flag in the Map exhibit coming to Napa Valley College on October 6, 2023. This is going to be a free event open to the general public and will feature a speaking program at 7:30PM that night with Charley Beal and Cleve Jones. As we reported on Outbeat News, the tragic shooting of a store owner in San Bernardino County bec...

Sonoma County has become a destination for fine dining, wine and fresh food.  This month we talk with Clark Wolf, a local gay man, who has more than 25 years of experience in the food industry and is the founder and president of Clark Wolf Company, a New-York based food and restaurant consulting firm. Clark will share his personal story and talk about queer people in the restaurant and food indust...

For this year’s Pride show, we are sharing the story of a proud gay man who served in the United States military, as a local deputy sheriff, and as a Secret Service agent assigned to protect the Obama family. His new memoir titled, “ Breaking Free: A Saga of Self-discovery by a Gay Secret Service Agent” was released this spring.  The book is fascinating and one a story worth read...

Natalie Thompson from InterPride joins us for an in-depth look at the oppressive laws targeting LGBTQ+ people in Uganda. You might be surprised where the incentive to create these laws is coming from. Get all the details you need for this year’s Sonoma County Pride celebration happening June 2 through 4, 2023 at Court House Square in downtown Santa Rosa. Sonoma County Pride organizers will be on t...

There are over 400 pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation pending in state legislatures across the country. Many of these bills are targeting transgender people and specifically transgender youth.  This month we talk with attorney Michel René Huff, a transgender man and the current president of Oakland Pride. He shares his personal story and take on all of the anti-transgender rhetoric happening around...

Nathan Manske, founder and creator of “I’m From Driftwood” returns to Outbeat Radio for an update on his work and to share some of the highlights of the 14 years worth of coming out videos he has collected since being inspired by Harvey Milk to create this collection. “I’m From Driftwood aims to help LGBTQIA+ people learn more about their community, cishet people learn more about their neighbors a...

In celebration of Valentine’s Day this month, we will talk with Tammy Shaklee, an LGBTQ+ match maker who will share some great advice for finding that special someone in today’s dating world. She will also share important personal safety advice when meeting someone for the first time. The annual AIDS ride began in 1994 and includes a 545 mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. This year...

“The National LGBTQ Task Force – the country’s oldest LGBTQ advocacy group – celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2023, honoring 50 years of advancing freedom, justice, and equality for LGBTQ people. ​​This milestone year will recognize and celebrate the Task Force’s rich history of driving progress within the LGBTQ community, from its early days lobbying the American Psychiatric Association to remo...

Our guest on this special Christmas Day show is Bryan Ruby, one of Out magazine’s “Out 100” of 2022.  Bryan is a professional baseball player and a professional country music singer-song writer.  He is also an openly gay man. Aside from traveling 75,000 miles last year playing baseball and performing concerts, Bryan created and leads an organization that helps and supports LGBTQ+ baseball players...

The holidays are upon us! These can be particularly stressful times for LGBTQ+ people. This month we’ll introduce you to a young gay man who is doing something to help LGBTQ+ navigate coming out and living an authentic life. Kollyn Conrad is the founder of Publicly Private, an organization that “provides a highly confidential avenue to assist LGBTQIA+ individuals throughout their life-long journey...

This week we have a special Outbeat Extra edition of Outbeat News In Depth celebrating LGBTQ history month.  LGBT author and historian, Eric Marcus, is our guest.  He is the founder of the Making Gay History podcast and MakingGayHistory.com. You might remember him from our special series last year featuring some of the hundreds of interviews with famous LGBTQ icons he recorded. We will be talking...

Zander Moricz was the class president of Pine View High School in Sarasota, Florida when the state’s “don’t say gay” bill was passed and signed into law. His graduation speech was censored by the school principal and so Zander decided to fight back and is now leading huge effort to overturn the law. Zander Moricz is being recognized by LGBT civil rights groups around the country including the Matt...

Coming out as transgender it tough enough, but imagine coming out as a transgender woman in the fire department. Bobbie Scopa did just that years before most others and ended up having a hugely successful 45 year long career! Her new memoir titled, “Both Sides of the Fire Line” comes out this month and Bobbie will be on our show to talk about the book and her story. Learn More Bobbie Scopa’s...

Monkeypox is the latest health emergency in the United States and men who have sex with men seem to be among a large group being infected. This month we will share the facts and myths about Monkeypox with Lorie Violette, Prevention Director at Face to Face here in Sonoma County. Monkeypox Virus Outbreak as a contagious infection as blisters and leisons on the skin representing transmission of an i...

With the recent Supreme Court decision taking away the right to an abortion comes worry that LGBTQ+ civil rights could be next. This month we talked with Dr. Jack Drescher, past President of the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), about how the 1973 decision by the APA to remove homosexuality from this list of mental il...

This month we talk with Michael Roberts about his new book, “Behind Sacred Walls.”  Roberts, a gay man, tells his own story of how he was groomed and sexually and psychologically abused by Catholic priests for more than a decade starting when he was just a teenager.  Roberts talks about not only what happened, but how he escaped the grip of his abusers and the institution that protected them. We a...